I'm looking for software that will backup a bluray title to BD-9 (avchd). I've been reading these forums til I canne read no more. One things for sure, there's more video software than you can shake a stick at. Some free, some needing a license, some that works, and some that claims to work but needs a week of evenings and the consumption of 500 posts before you even get close to working.....I know becuase I've been downloading all the free stuff, and it doesn't work for me.

I've decided I don't want to play with half a dozen utilities, each with their own support board and issue list, I'll pay for something that works out the box.

From what I can see so far:

1. "DVDFab bluray copy" will remove the encryption and copy protection on a BD disc, and then re-compress it down to a DVD-9 in one step whereas; (60 USD)

2. Anydvd HD will only remove the encryption and copy protection on a BD disc. (79 Euros)

Is this correct?

If the above is correct, then DVD Fab would appear to be the better option (all other things being equal) as it also does the compression, and it's cheaper for me in the UK (US exchange rate better then euro).

I'm assuming that DVD Fab can decrypt BD titles just as well as AnyDVD (?)

Would anyone agree before I make the purchase?

By my understanding, I'm going to have to buy one or the other in order to get round the BD copy protection. I don't want to start an argument between DVDFab and AnyDVD camps, I'm just looking for software that works.

There are many Blu-Ray decrypters/rippers on offer, but AFAIK the only worthwhile ones are on the rather short list available over there <--- in the Tools section. I have used them all, at least the trials. So here goes:

Free:

1) DumpHD. Forget about it unless you want to search for decryption keys. Difficult to use, my impression is that it's more of a proof-of-concept than a useful tool.
2) DVDFabHDDecrypter, the free version of DVDFab. While other functions such as re-encoding are disabled, the decryption works fine. Supposedly updates lag behind the pay version, but I haven't found that to be so, maybe it is. Anyone unsure what to buy should use this in the meantime at least, while trying the trials of other decrypters.

Driver Level, Payware:

1) AnyDVDHD. This one's first-class, and many folks think it's the best of the bunch.
2) DVDFabPasskey. Very similar to AnyDVDHD. I used it a lot while it was beta and think it too is first-class.

Payware:

1) DVDFab. Decryption is fine, but to my mind the other functions can be done better with free tools available here. I've used the re-encoding function and find it inferior to all the free tools using the X264 Encoder, BDRB for example.
2) MakeMKV. This is your baby if you want MKVs. I've found it to be somewhat quirky, early versions buggered subtitles, maybe no longer the case. Nevertheless, it's been developed steadily and is fairly reliable.

I would advise using DVDFabHDDecrypter for the time being. Give the trials of the other ones a go and decide for yourself. Good luck.

I own both AnyDVDHD & DVDFabHDDecryptor Bluray to Bluray. I don't really use the DVDFab because I thought the end product PQ was inferior to AnyDVDHD with BDRebuilder. True it takes an extra step but to me it's worth it. DVDFab seems like a rip-off to me because they make you pay extra for every feature. To me, when you pay a hundred bucks for software like that, all the top features should be included. They nickel & dime you to death. Try both in the trial version and make up your own mind.

I agree with ricoman. I bought dvd fab first, then realized that I had to pay more for "other" features. So, I bought anydvd with lifetime upgrades. When I bought it, it was around $120. Far better than what I would be "nickel & dimed" with dvd fab!

I have bought both products and my conclusion is that AnyDVD HD does the better job ripping a full Blu-Ray to hard drive, and from that point there are endless free products to do whatever you want. What is particularly impressive is that when I buy a marquee release on Tuesday which has a new key introduced, AnyDVD is already prepared for it an alerts you to download the update.

I also agree with previous comments. Using Avatar as my test disc I tried various programs to make BD9, MKV and AVI. Tried DVDFab to different formats and was disappointed. Plus most programs struggle to handle the forced subtitles. A BD9 made with BDRB looked stunning on my 40 inch LCD and got the subs right. I was amazed at the quality retained compressing such a long movie.

Well, after some days of encoding at various resolutions using both programs, I would have to agree with most of the opinions on here; BDRebuilder produces better results (High quality, two pass encoding).

At 1080P BD-R 25GB the results are the best.
Next up is 720P DVD9, but BDRebuilder had problems shrinking the subtitles (they appeared, but were very large). DVDFab at this resolution didn't include any subs at all by contrast.

One thing you need to be aware of, is a feature called lightning encoding in DVDFab (enabled by default). It speeds up encoding, but boy, does it introduce lots of artifacts into the picture. I tried with and without.

I also tried 480P DVD9, 1080P DVD9. If you're a movie quality fan, and have a very good set up (1080P projector, blacked out cinema room), then I wouldn't bother with these configurations. I suppose everyone has different ideas about 'quality', but at 1080P on a DVD9, duiring the dark scenes, I could see blocking and banding (1hr40min movie). Light scenes were fine.

With branded BD-R media now at 1 GBP per disc, I wonder if it's even worth the bother to shrink to DVD9. I suppose DVD-9 (8GB) configurations have applications with the media server crowd (to save hard disk space).

For most movies, it's not necessary to resize to 720p if the target size is BD9. Try it yourself and see. Compare to a BD25 encode. Now, if your target size is BD5, unless the movie is fairly short, that's different.